The Mist
by Fxreflies
Summary: If he looked above it was just as dark as looking below. The floor was like a shadow, spread across the world as far as his vision would take him. Almost like a blanket, the darkness covered all and everything. He shivered, but the cold was the last thing he felt. [Added chapter of a guest suggestion. If you have more suggestions, I will gladly look into them.] COMPLETE!
1. Together

**So, here I am with another story. I hope I nail the characters - it's my first Ninjago fanfic and I'm a bit nervous. I've been sitting on this idea for a while and thought I should finally finish it. I do have a bit more Ninjago stories in my head, though, so if you like this let me know.**

 **Btw, this takes place after season 7 but before season 8.**

 **I guess you can say there's greenflame in it? Idk, they just have a conversation at the end and I picked Kai 'cause he has a lot in common.**

 **Annnnd, the end was a bit rushed, and it was originally going to end _extremely_ different. Any-who, I hope you like it. Maybe you'll guess what the nightmare is about? There are hints in the story but it could play out in a lot of ways.**

 **So, without further a do, here is the story!**

 **And I hate doing [asking for them] this, but reviews are nice!**

 **[update, the guest review that asked for a Nya and Kai sibling story, I'm working on it!]**

* * *

Black.

The air was black. It was thick, like you could poke your hand out and get lost inside it. It felt _off_ to him, even though it was all just dense air. Black was all he really saw, and silence was all he heard.

 _Black, black, black._

If he looked above it was just as dark as looking below. The floor was like a shadow, spread across the world as far as his vision would take him. Almost like a blanket, the darkness covered all and everything.

He shivered, but the cold was the last thing he felt.

He looked to the left and then the right. All directions seemed the same: black, darkness, silence. He squinted forward, straining his eyes, as if trying to imagine light breaking through the darkness, saving him.

Although it wasn't light. It was a deep purple glow. Like a lilac, lavender color. But darker, scarier. He reached his hand out to touch it. The purple clung to his skin, burning him like a fire was brewing. He coughed as if smoke filled his lungs, screamed in fear for the purple hatred.

And he dropped to the ground, letting the darkness eat him alive with open arms.

Ringing filled his ears as he snapped his eyes closed in an attempt to shut out the dark, purple mist from his vision. He clamped his hands around his ears, but the screaming still sounded. It tore through his body; it echoed through the world's mass, empty space.

That was when he realized the noise was him, screaming in fear.

He tried to yell for help, but no words escaped. He tried to stand up, but no limbs listened. He tried to think something - anything - through, but his thoughts were like cars on a highway. He waited in a curled up ball.

Waited, and waited, until the tips of his fingers felt a silky string and crumbling dirt. He tensed up as if it was all a trick on his brain but eventually gave into the curiosity. His left eye popped open, then the right. Grass was beneath him. It was a growing green color, as if nature was at its peek. Trees full of bright green leaves were visible in the distance. A wind blew at his blonde hair, swaying the tall flowers and bright green grass below him.

It was such an odd feeling. He felt some weird tingle in his bones. The world went from utter darkness, to flourishing green plants in seconds. He believed everything was okay, but deep down his gut said run.

And he did because of the foggy darkness behind him. The blackness had returned and it was coming for him. It was eating up the glowing, green land, and the hope that burned inside of him slipped away once more.

There was a voice in the distance. A deep, daring laugher. It sounded familiar, but he couldn't point it to one specific person he knew. And so on and on he ran, the voice laughing at him, mocking him, and the darkness gaining speed.

He was confused and alone. And he also shouldn't have looked back.

The darkness ate up the space between them in seconds. He watched, wide-eyed, as a shadow-like hand emerged from the black mist. It twisted around his ankles and brought him to the ground instantly, then pulling him back into the dark. He kicked out in an attempt to hit something, anything. His fist punched the black air doing no harm nor good. He choked on the tears that dripped from his closed eyes.

He didn't even realize it, but his mouth screamed, begged, for help again. The only problem was no one came.

And once again he was surrounded by darkness, only this time he heard someone speaking. His name, over and over again, like a broken record.

 _Lloyd, Lloyd, Lloyd..._

"...Lloyd? Lloyd. Lloyd!"

His body was being shaken and before he knew it, a freezing cold liquid was thrown at his face.

He shot up into a sitting position, watching the shadows around him form into people that backed up in shock. He blinked the remaining bits of sleep from his eyes away, wiping the cold water from his face. His hands then gripped the rusty metal of the bed frame below him, kicking his feet around so they were flat on the floor. His mouth stumbled with words before any actually formed.

"What?" he murmured, his quickened breath slowing down.

The recollection of what he was doing before he fell asleep hit him like a brick wall; him and his five ninja friends were talking about where their lost Master could have gone. He mentally shrugged, guessing the conversation could have got too boring for him to handle. Or...maybe he fell asleep because he could never get any before; being stressed with Master Wu lost in time. The duties of being Master fell to his shoulders being the Green Ninja, and it was a lot of pressure for one boy.

"I told you we shouldn't have thrown water on him just yet," Kai, the hot-headed Fire Ninja whispered loud enough for Lloyd to overhear.

Cole's mouth opened in shock. "You were the one turning his brain into eggs!" the Earth Ninja replied.

"That...was Jay's idea," Kai answered, flicking his finger up to point the blame in the direction of the fast-talking Lightning ninja.

The Master of Lightning also had to speak for himself. "In my defense, when do we ever listen to me? Why would you listen to me!"

Nya, Master of Water, threw her hands up and stepped forward. "Would you three stop talking; he's _right_ there!" she interrupted. She motioned to Lloyd with a slight tilt of her head but he noticed it. Of course he noticed it; he's a ninja.

"I mean, we're just curious to why he was screaming in terror," Kai added, lifting up his hands and letting them flop back down at his side for dramatic effect.

"I sense it was a nightmare?" the Ice Ninja, Zane, suggested as his robotic voice filled the air.

The ninja glanced back at Zane with a questionable look before more words started to blurr out. Lloyd just sat in silence, waiting for the rush of his friend's spew of words to be over. He glanced outside to the window. The stars twinkled in the night sky. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes once more.

"Was it about Master Wu?" Jay asked. "Your father?"

"Woah, we don't even know if he actually had a nightmare," said Cole with his hands up in defense.

Jay rolled his eyes and snorted a laugh. "He was screaming in his sleep - he woke all us up! - and you can't argue with a Nindroid, Cole," he said a-matter-of-factually.

Lloyd watched the eased Earth Ninja open his mouth with a reply and a sarcastic nickname but cut him off. "I don't know what it was," interrupted the new Master. "C-can I have a cup of water? I need to relax, t-to think."

"We just threw one at your face, though," Jay said, gathering looks from the rest of the ninja. He giggled a nervous laugh and took a weak step backwards. "Too soon? I'll be back." And with that he slipped through the door to retrieve a cup of water. His footsteps slowly went out of reach and the constant slur of words from him talking to himself disappeared as well.

Silence fell upon the five friends left. Lloyd was overwhelmed by the sudden burst of commotion, but this quick silence made him gather his thoughts. He was screaming not only in the nightmare, but in real life, too. Was it that bad?

"Do you want to, uh, want to talk about it?" ventured Cole in a soft tone. It was as if he was talking to a baby, or a injured animal. It was as if Lloyd was some piece of fractured glass that needed to be handled extremely carefully.

Lloyd didn't nessesarly want to dwell on the dream, though. But he saw the look in his friends' eyes: the look of pain, curiously. They wanted to know, wanted to make him feel better and to have the blanket of safety return to them all. Of course each and every one of them was all shaken up in their own way - it was obvious. The ninja didn't exactly know how to handle the loss of Master Wu.

And so he took in a large breath, filling his lungs. Lloyd pushed himself back and leaned against the wall, still under the bunk-bed. His eyes slowly blinked. Then his mouth opened. "It was dark." He stopped abruptly as he tried to take in his fellow ninja's expressions.

They hadn't changed; they were deep into the story even with the three word-start. Plus, Cole and Kai had even sat down and got comfortable on the floor.

So Lloyd continued.

"I couldn't see anything, feel anything, hear anything-"

The door bursted open. All five of the ninja looked to the door. Jay appeared in the doorway with a cup in his hand. Lloyd watched the water hastily swoosh back and forth in the cup, drips going over the edge. Jay must have rushed, but he slowly handed the cup to the Green Ninja and sat down on the floor in front of Cole.

Lloyd ended up getting through the dream with only a few answer-less questions. Such as, _What was the mist? Who was laughing? Where were you?_

They were silent for a good couple of minutes after the nightmare deemed to be over. Nya yawned, which made the rest of the ninja pop up.

"So, not that this isn't fun-" Jay started. He fell into a yawn as well. "-but I think I'm gonna get the most sleep I can in the few hours we have left 'till sunrise." He stood up, stretched, and looked at Lloyd. "I'll figure it out in the morning."

Then he left Lloyd's room and walked down the hall into his own. You could hear the plop when he landed on his bed.

Cole stood up, too, and gave Lloyd a pat on the back. "We'll get through this, Lloyd. Together."

Eventually, Kai was the only one left. He sat next to Lloyd on the bed and took in a deep breath. "I know how it feels," he started, "to loose people, love them, hate them, but want them back so badly. I know you miss your family, but we all miss people." He put his hands up like he was weighing something.

"Jay hasn't met his real parents, Cole misses his mom, don't even get me started on Zane. And Nya and I...well, we're a mess." Kai paused. "But, like Cole said, we're gonna get through it _together_. You'll see your family again, Lloyd."

"How do you know that?" he asked, looking down. "How do you know I won't just be haunted by my dad or think I mess up without Uncle Wu here?"

"Because we always get through it," Kai stated. "And not because your some legendary Green Ninja, but because you're our leader. And we trust you."

Lloyd sniffled. He looked up. "Thanks, Kai."

"Anytime," Kai answered, standing up slowly. He turned off the light and softly shut the bedroom door.

And as he walked back to his own room, too, he hoped he said the right thing. He also hoped everything turned out good in the end.


	2. Bonus Suggestion

**Okay, so this is a little bonus chapter. A guest reviewed a suggestion and I though why not? It's fairly short, though. Anyways, I thought I'd give it a shot. The ending comes a bit erupt but if I continued it then the story would have ended up being over 2,000 more words longer.**

 **So, I thought I'd just let your imagination see how they end it - you'll understand that when you get to the end.** **I really hoped I wrote out what you were looking for! I'll stop taking now - go read the story!**

 _"I'd love it if you did a one-shot where Nya has a nightmare and Kai comforts her! I'm really missing their sibling moments! Maybe it could be set after Hands Of Time and the dream is about Nya losing Kai because her parents are back and she's scared Kai will stop protecting her or something like that? I'd love it if you could do that! You seem the perfect writer for it! Xxx"_

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Nya Smith was ecstatic when she realized her parents were not dead. She was jumping with joy when Kai - her hotheaded brother - finally picked up his head and was out of the dumps. He was always bringing up how their parents were terrible, leaving their kids alone at such a young and vulnerable age. Yet, he didn't know the reasoning behind it. Nobody did. And now they have the answer and he was all over there long lost parents.

But then he seem to grow...distant from Nya. Yeah, he was most likely just making up for lost time. Deep in her bones she knew that Kai would come back to her - that he would save her if need be - even if she could take care of herself. He always did. It was just who he was. And now Nya's got friends - gosh she's even got a boyfriend! She isn't alone.

But it really isn't the same as her older brother.

I guess you could say she got...jealous. Kai was spending all of his off-ninja time with their parents. And, well, and Nya had things to do. She couldn't just drop everything to go visit - she had to spend time with Jay and help Lloyd feel like himself again. Nya also had to fix the microwave one time, too, because someone thought it was a good idea to put metal in there.

She was a busy girl and when she slept the idea of losing her brother followed her. She just knew that Kai wouldn't do that to her, but he always seems so real and her nightmares.

Almost every night in her dream she was lost. Nya was lost and she was losing her brother. She _hated_ losing. It was not how she lived. But in the dream, no matter which way she ran, there was always a daring cliff in front of her wide, terrified eyes. Even if she look behind her at the dark green nature engulfing her and ran somewhere else, it always lead to the same place. The sky was always dark and the mood was naturally killed. And every time she looked off the cliff in curiosity she felt the comforting hands of her brother on her back.

Yet, before she knew it, the wind picked up and her hair flip this way in that; her feet came out from under her; and gravity took its way. In other words, she was falling. And she was pushed.

Nya always managed to see her brother's classical smirk right before she was about to hit the ground. Although she never did; instead, she was promptly woken up by fear itself. Her forhead would be drenched in sweat and her breath was always upbeat. Yet, even if betrayal was what Kai did in Nya's dreams, he was still good ol' vanilla Kai in the real world. This made her feel somewhat better, knowing that he wouldn't try to stab her with a butter knife during breakfast.

A couple nights, Nya was ripped out of her dreams by none other than Kai himself. He would rub her arm and tell her everything is okay, that it was just a bad dream. Then, Nya presumed, he tells the other in the morning.

Of course she notices the way Jay looks at her now. He has never been good with when and when not to or how to express his feelings. It showed so clearly that he was debating whether not to ask Nya about what happened. Kai ever did, so the only person who knew about the cliff was Nya her self. And it wasn't like she could go ask Master Wu about what to do, considering he's gone.

Nya just doesn't want to feel weak. She doesn't want to feel like, well, a girl. She know she strong, and so do the others. But if they found out that some little nightmare she knew was fake was eating her up, then what would they think?

That didn't matter as much is how the nightmares were affecting her. A few nights ago, she started to believe that the nightmare couldn't get to her if she didn't sleep. So, of course, instead of catching some Z's, Nya would work on something to keep her mind busy. She went out for midnight walks and even tried baking cookies in the early morning. She was high on coffee and sugar. Her vision was always full of fluorescent lights to keep her awake. Nya denied the need to lay or lean on anything, yawn, or blink for more than two seconds. And it took a toll on her. She's quite a stubborn one - and she thought no sleep is better than watching her brother push her off a cliff to her death.

Everyone noticed. Everyone stared during breakfast and they clearly were taking it easy on her during training.

Nya had just headed to her room after dinner. It has been three sleepless nights. She tossed herself on her bed and rubbed her face. She just needed to clear her mind and not think about Kai. She needed to be alone and try to get some time with her parents. She really just wanted silence and some sleep-

"Nya?"

Now her own brother was knocking at her door.

"Nya?" he repeated. "Can I come in?"

Nya rubbed her eyes and replied with a small yes.

Her bedroom door creaked open and in walked in a red gi. Kai softly sat down on her bed. He let the silence drag on a bit too long. Nya though it was because he didn't know what to say or do.

So she broke it. "If you wanted to know how I'm doing, I'm fine."

"Oh, come on, Nya, we all see the bags under your eyes," Kai started. "You need to tell me what's eating at you."

"Nothing."

"I'm worried about you, all of us are. You've been closed off and I know you're not sleeping."

She sat up and confusion took over. "How do you-"

"I'm a ninja, I know everything," Kai insisted, smirking. "And for the record, you aren't very quiet."

"Well then you should know why I'm not sleeping, and why I've been ignoring you and why I've been trying not to seem so _weak_ -" Nya was cut off. She choked on her tears. They came fast but they were expected. She's had so much inside for so long.

"And now you're spending all your time with Mom and Dad and I'm stuck on the _Bounty_. So, I've just been thinking that you moved on-" Nya sniffled. She wiped her nose on her sleeve wearily as Kai moved closer and wrapped an arm around her. "-and that I was alone; that you wouldn't be there for me. And, Kai, I'm scared to go to sleep because it haunts me-"

"Shh," her brother said and she complied. Kai rubbed his sister's hair and eventually her tears turned into sniffled. "Your okay, Nya, I would never leave you." Kai leaned his chin on her head and continued to soothe her. "I love you more than ever. And you're one of the strongest human beings I've ever seen."

He paused and turned to look into his sister's eyes. "The others are watching a movie. Lloyd picked it so it's probably some boring Fritz Donegan film, but do you want to come watch it with us? Then tomorrow morning we'll leave and go visit Mom and Dad, okay?"

Nya nodded and silently brushed away the tears. Together, they walked into the main room where the rest of the ninja were squeezed onto the couch. No body questioned what had happened; Jay hit play on the remote. Only Nya had no idea what happened in the movie because the moment it started, she was out like a light.

Quietly, Kai stood up. He smiled and placed his hands on his hips. "Thanks for picking such a boring, Lloyd - the plan worked perfectly." He reached down to pick up his sister. "Oh, and whatever plans we have for tomorrow, me and Nya are out."

"But we have training tomorrow?" Cole asked.

"Will you be back in time for dinner?" questioned Zane.

Kai shrugged, scooping Nya into his arms. "Maybe?"

"I will go all out anyways," Zane concluded.

"Aw yeah!" Jay pipped up. "Dinner's gonna be great. Now c'mon Lloyd, play the movie!"

"I actually think we should just go to sleep," said Cole. He stood up and turned off the tv.

Kai didn't bother hearing the small agurment that continued as he placed Nya in her bed and tucked her in. He placed a small kiss on her forehead before standing by the door and softly closing it. By the look on her face, she wasn't having a nightmare. And that made Kai sleep better as well.

Nya woke up in the morning feeling refreshed. She slept peacefully and started the day with a warm shower. Her and Kai had breakfast before leaving and heading to their childhood home for the afternoon.

And it was worth the wait.


End file.
